Muhammed, 48, was killed by lethal injection at 9.11pm EST (0211 GMT) for a three-week killing spree in 2002 that left 10 dead. Prison spokesman Larry Traylor said Muhammad had no final words and did not utter a word while he was preparing to be executed. Hours earlier he had met with relatives and his lawyer described him as fearless in the face of death. J. Wyndal Gordon said Muhammad had no regrets and would die with dignity. Mr Gordon also insisted that Muhammad was innocent.
Mr Gordon said Muhammad met with one of his sons before the execution and then reminisced about the time he spent with his son before Muhammad went to prison. Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, a Democrat, declined to stay the execution of Muhammad, a former US Army soldier, following the United States Supreme court's similar decision on Monday. Muhammad has no further avenues of appeal.
He his accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, now 24, terrorised the Washington area, killing 10 people in a three-week period before they were arrested. Using a battered car as a firing platform, they selected their targets at random and shot them at long rage. Under Virginia law, a condemned man may select whether to die by the electric chair or lethal election. Muhammad, who was born John Allen Williams but changed his name when he converted to Islam, declined to choose and officials therefore decided on the injection method.
His execution, for the single murder of Dean Meyers, 58, shot while buying petrol, took place at Greensville Correctional Centre near Jarrett, Virginia. Officials said Muhammad would be injected with thipental sodium, to put him to sleep, pancuronium bromide, to stop him breathing, and potassium chloride, to stop his heart. After their arrests, police established that the pair were also responsible for five other murders in Washington state, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana. But Malvo, who is serving a life sentence, confessed to four additional shootings, including two murders.
Cheryll Witz is one of several victims' relatives who were going to watch the execution. Malvo confessed that, at Muhammad's direction, he shot her father, Jerry Taylor, on a golf course in Tucson, Arizona in March 2002. "He basically watched my dad breathe his last breath," she said. "Why shouldn't I watch his last breath?" The very broad area of the confirmed attacks means that a number of other shootings are considered as potentially linked to Muhammad and Malvo. Some of the relatives of those possible victims fear that Muhammad will take to his grave the secret of whether he was responsible for the murders of their loved ones.
Sarah Dillon, whose son Billy Gene Dillon, 37, was shot dead outside a house in Texas in May 2002 has written to Muhammad and Malvo asking for confirmation or denial of their involvement but received no reply. The Texas authorities sent bullet fragments to the sniper task force but tests were inconclusive. Mrs Dillon said: "All I'm asking for is answers before they leave this world."
Several relatives are due to witness the execution. Among them is Marion Lewis, 57, of Mountain Home, Idaho, whose daughter Lori Lewis Rivera was shot dead by Muhammad and Malvo - who pulled the trigger is not known - at a petrol station in Kensington, Maryland. He is being flown to Virginia by a syndicated television show and told The Washington Post he was looking forward to seeing the death penalty imposed.
"I want to see what he made me see. He forced us to look at our little girl laying in a coffin. I want to see justice done. I want to see him take a last breath...I want to be able to describe it to the rest of the family. Muhammad will be given the chance to say some final words. Mr Lewis, who said he would have preferred a more "gruesome" execution method, wished he could say something too. "It would be short and simple: 'I'm here to see you die...son of a bitch'."
Jonathan Sheldon, Muhammad's lawyer, said: "Virginia will execute a severely mentally ill man who also suffered from Gulf War Syndrome the day before Veterans Day."
Telegraph 
